With the weather turning, World Business Chicago (WBC) is ready to showcase the Chicago startup community this spring.
The city's economic development partner organization will host its Startup Chicago DeepTech Showcase next week, a virtual event meant to connect local startups with potential investors.
An extension of the Chicago Venture Summit, in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, the DeepTech Showcase is designed for startup founders actively fundraising in 2024 to find a match with investors interested in investing in Chicago.
The showcase, to be held March 20, will include pitches from select quantum and climate-tech startup founders as well as a keynote address from Dick Co, director of Chain Reaction Innovations, the entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Laboratory.
"This is something that came out of the pandemic when we couldn't do Chicago Venture Summits, but we wanted to provide opportunities for local Chicago startups to connect with out-of-town investors during their fundraising," Abin Kuriakose, chief strategy and innovation officer at World Business Chicago, told Chicago Inno.
The showcases are based on priority sectors for WBC.
The DeepTech Showcase will be the organization's third of the year after hosting ones for life sciences and Black founders in January and February. WBC plans to host 15 showcases throughout the year.
Kuriakose said the events have doubled their RSVP counts and attendance since last year.
"With all the investors that attend the Chicago Venture Summit, this is our strategy to keep them engaged with Chicago founders," he said.
Attendance at 2024 showcases have been somewhere between 60 to 70 people, the majority of which are investors, with an average of eight to 10 pitches per event.
Chicago 'the only place doing some of these things'
Kuriakose said Chicago has all the ingredients to be the premier quantum hub moving forward.
"We have the academic and national lab institutions that have really invested in the research and development. You have the Chicago Quantum Exchange. Chicago is the only place doing some of these things," he said, pointing as well to Duality, the first-ever quantum startup accelerator. "When we think about the big picture of quantum, we're asking ourselves how do we support quantum entrepreneurship, especially for those founders that want to launch new startups here in Chicago."
New funding and recent spinoffs have also positioned Chicago as a climate-tech leader moving forward.
The DeepTech Showcase comes as WBC is still looking for startups to apply for the Chicago Venture Summit Future-of-Food 2024. WBC hosted the Future of Climate Tech Venture Summit last October and the Chicago Venture Summit Future-of-Food last May.
Returning May 22–24, the Future-of-Food summit will look to connect venture-ready food and agriculture startups with investors and industry leaders from anywhere.
Startups seeking their next institutional round, whether that be pre-seed, seed, Series A or Series B, can apply. Applications are due next week.
